Category Archives: Training

If you want to get the update from iOS 2.x to 3.1.3 then follow this link. It will cost you 4.95 from the App Store™

If you have a minute more, here’s why. I knew from looking at “Mac Tracker” that the highest possible iOS for the 1st Generation iPod is 3.1.3 but could not find any way to get it. I looked high and low; on forums, websites and youtube. Then! Quite by accident I stumbled onto a link that led me to Apple’s support site and the link above. On that page is a link that will take you directly to the App Store™ and the ability to download the 3.1.3 software for 4.95.

If you don’t know why you should do this, it’s quite simple. There are tons more apps available with the new software and will breathe new life into your 1st Generation iPod.

Leave us a comment if you have a minute or at least email this to all your friends. :-)

If “things” go south for any reason you will be faced with the following challenge: You must reinforce or replace “everything” that you had previously relied on others, to provide. Another way of putting it is, creating your own personal economy.

In time those personal economies will evolve into one large economy and the cycle begins all over again. The past reveals the future. What causes us to repeat history is that our experience tells us an incomplete story.

Secrets or “steps” or “keys” are often things that someone else has had the time to throughly investigate. There are only two kinds of secrets; those which are open but must be uncovered and real secrets which generally lie locked up in mens hearts. We all know a few of each type.

The real insight is this. You gain steps and keys over the span of your life and even if you can stuff your brain full of information it won’t help you if you don’t practice it. TLP

Everyone I know loves to eat. Not only that, they have very specific ideas about what they want to eat. This drama can be expertly demonstrated at meal times in various kitchens and restaurants around the world. Let the service fall a little behind schedule and the hungry patrons can become unhappy.

Now imagine it’s meal time, the stores have been cleaned out and you are stranded. Not being able to return home from an out of town service call and the highways are jammed due to a yet unnamed disaster. At this point it’s not what’s in your wallet but what’s in your bag. You know, that “get out of dodge bag”, “get home bag”, or whatever you call it.

You go down the list of options: Do I try to make it home, pull off and camp for the night, call for help, what’s the best option. Oh and by the way I’m HUNGRY. If your bag has a supply of readily edible stuff you can make it for a little while. If you have nothing, you only have two options; find someone who will share or try and forage on your own. Depending on your local foraging may or may not be an option.

There are a number of things you need to do to survive in a situation like this but we’re just dealing with the hunger issue. We are not used to going hungry and if we are busy with tasks like building a shelter we “need” calories to keep us going.

We also need to build fire and gather safe water to drink but the loss of one thing will tend to overwhelm us and that’s a lack of food. Going without food is both physically and psychologically debilitating. While it’s important to be able to make fire, shelter and collect water the one thing that can help us keep a positive mental attitude is to know we have made provision for food.

What kind of food you decide to put in your bag is up to you but remember that it must be easy to preserve, high in calories and in sufficient quantity for you and your group. When it comes to food prep for trail and home I would refer you to a couple of people that have been a great help in that area. The Survival Mom andCommon Sense Survival’s Leon Patenburg.

As a certain early eighties adventure series was fond to say “I love it when a plan comes together” After spending the better part of thirty years making plans I can attest to the fact the plan rarely comes together at least not without a lot of changes along the way.

When we think about being prepared for what ever catastrophe comes along there is one aspect of the plan that is crucial. What exactly am I planning for. A natural disaster is easier to plan for because we’ve seen what those things can do. Other types of disasters are harder to figure out. Terrorism, war or social upheaval is at best unpredictable. One factor that is often overlooked is that when the systems that we depend on fail, all of us are in uncharted waters.

The majority of people will be experiencing and reacting to situations that they have never seen in their life and it will be a bit surprising for everyone. The plan that wins will be the one that comes nearest to meeting the contingencies that come.

When it all goes down. It will be the the gear between the ears that makes the difference.

Preparedness tip: Fix you hair without the use of a hair dryer. Leave the hair dryer in the drawer and save electricity. The more modern conveniences you can do without, the easier it will be when you “have” to do without them. Bandanna anyone?

Many people are reluctant to buy in to the whole idea of preparedness because we have learned to rely on outside means of support. Just like in the movies; the Cavalry will arrive at the last minute to save the day. This is most un-self-reliant culture that has ever existed. We depend on oil, electricity, all food production, public utilities, all forms of media and mass communication to name the obvious. The only thing that gets our attention is when one of these systems fails.

We didn’t get here over night. Slowly, technology made it easier for us to parcel out services to individuals and companies that in turn made our lives easier but at the same time more dependent. Therein lies the problem; should this fragile system falter we are not prepared to implement the skills of the past to insure our well being and survival. I am not exactly knocking the comforts of our service based society; I enjoy those things as much as anyone. Sometimes, though, tragedy strikes and we suffer, very often needlessly.

I’ve read and watched my share of survival stories and for the most part the participants in these stories had one main problem, they were not prepared. Very often they lacked things like blankets, a way to make a fire but the most crucial thing was a lack of knowledge of how to survive. “My people perish for a lack of knowledge” echos down the corridors of time. Often very intelligent people have perished, not for lack of skill or intellect but simply for a lack of knowledge.

The knowledge is readily available, in books and all over the internet. The key to this knowledge is desire, you must first consider it an important thing to invest in. I’m not going to rely on the cavalry to save the day.

The Pathfinder School teaches, Improvise, adapt and overcome. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it, even profound. Here’s the key; you must train and get into that mode of thinking at a moments notice.

There are thousands of scenarios for surviving; everything from civil unrest to being stranded in some remote location. Being prepared is being able to open your bag or trunk or whatever and then to walk into a situationready to put your survival skills into action. Survival isn’t something you want to learn on the job.